| I still remember that Friday evening, almost exactly a year ago, when I was sitting in the family room of our home, flipping around from streamer to streamer in search of something mindless yet watchable—a taller task than it sounds—while tying up a few end-of-week threads at Puck. Then, at 8:51 p.m., a text message popped up on my iPhone from Teddy Schleifer. I glanced at it, looked up at the television, and then did a legitimate double-take, incredulous about what I’d just seen. I reread the first line of Teddy’s note: “Currently in an Uber to see S.B.F.”
This note was the seed of what would become Teddy’s instant classic, The Only Living Boy in Palo Alto, the most thoughtful and intimate portrait of this disgraced boy genius, who was then cooped up in his childhood home, G.P.S. monitor around his ankle, comforted only by his new dog, his bewildered parents, and his grander delusions about the outcome of his upcoming trial. (This fall, S.B.F. was found guilty on seven counts of fraud.)
The Only Living Boy in Palo Alto has an exalted place in the growing oeuvre of S.B.F. scholarship. Teddy, after all, is the foremost expert on the guy. He’s known him for years, since well before he was famous, and charted his rise and fall with acuity and fervor and, it should be noted, expansive circumspection. His reportage also happened to be one of my favorite stories that Puck published all year—and, for what it’s worth, our company’s highest subscriber-generating article of 2023.
Looking over the list of stories that generated the most new subscriptions is a fun and interesting pastime. It’s certainly not a full encapsulation of Puck’s gestalt—after all, it doesn’t accurately capture the consumption habits of the C.E.O.s, senators, producers, agents, White House denizens, private equity executives, fashion machers, power lawyers, and other informed citizens who comprise our community. But it is, nevertheless, a fascinating snapshot of the intellectual erogenous zones of the chattering classes. And, if nothing else, it might provide others within our ecosystem some useful reading recommendations during this somnolent hibernatory period.
A look across the list of these pieces suggests a few leitmotifs. In The Last Days of SVB, Bill Cohan offers precisely the unique mix of expert reporting and financial expertise that only he—a former M&A banker turned bestselling author—can confer upon his beat. His probing exposé on the suicide of a generationally talented investment banker, What Was Eating Tom Lee, demonstrated his unmatched proximity to the true inside conversation coursing through haute finance C-suites. (Another list-topper, A Private Equity Boardroom Coup, reinforces the point.)
In Hollywood, Puck founding partner Matt Belloni is a singular figure—the most connected, omniscient, brilliant narrator at work today (and, likely, ever). He also has an extraordinarily sensitive radar for the anxieties of the industry, especially amid these turbulent times. This innate skill was manifested via the popularity of his expert and delicious Casualties of the Costner-Yellowstone Crossfire and Why Everyone Is Dropping Scooter Braun, the latter of which became a full-blown viral sensation. The success of Matt’s annual prognostication issue of What I’m Hearing, his genre-defining private email, also demonstrated his enormous influence on the industry.
You might not be surprised that Zaz Brings in the Pain Sponge, Dylan Byers’ report on David Zaslav’s post-Chris Licht CNN recovery mission, was also among our pieces that attracted the most subscribers this year. It won’t shock anyone that Lauren Sherman’s exquisite Scenes from the Tiffany-LVMH Marriage was also high on the list. Nor will it confound you that Eriq Gardner’s DeNiro and the Nastiest Assistant Legal Saga Ever brought in legions of new members to our company. After all, Zaz, Arnault, and ignominious legal behavior are Puck touchstones. Similarly, loyal readers could have fathomed the magnetic power of Baratunde Thurston’s Harry & Meghan in History, and Julia Alexander’s Iger’s $27.5 Billion Hulu Question.
A perusal of this list also indicated, a great many times, the prescience of my partners. In Ronny on the Run, way back in the spring, Tara Palmeri brilliantly and humorously presaged his Chernobyl-like candidacy. Ditto Tina Nguyen’s excellent The DeSantis Consultant Mind Trap. Peter Hamby was way ahead of his peers in explicating Biden’s real electoral challenges, which are expertly highlighted in Biden, Gen Z, and the Illiberal Left.
But if you only have time to read one piece this holiday weekend, I’d turn your attention to a pair of Julia Ioffe joints that perspicaciously and boldly examine the horrors of October 7 with remarkably lucidity. In Tragedy in Israel, Julia confronts the chilling reality of the two-state solution. Horror in the Holy Land contemplates the path forward. Taken as a whole, these are the stories of our time, and exactly what you should expect from Puck once again in 2024.
Happy New Year,
Jon |
